Nearly half a billion dollars in federal money has been spent developing four state Obamacare exchanges that are now in shambles — and the final price tag for salvaging them may go sharply higher.

Each of the states — Massachusetts, Oregon, Nevada and Maryland — embraced Obamacare, and each underperformed. All have come under scathing criticism and now face months of uncertainty as they rush to rebuild their systems or transition to the federal exchange.

What’s the problem — the state cronies got their cut, and now the federal cronies will step in to get theirs.

And that'll mark the epitaph for this administration when all is said and done.

It's something that rattles around in my head all the time - "They either meant to do that, or were incredibly stupid and naive." But no one can be THAT stupid - to blow that much on a website - integration with other companies notwithstanding- and have it fail so hard. These days when even the addle-brained can hire talent to get the job done, you have to be trying to fail.